THUNDER BAY - First Nations leaders say their communities lack access to proper legal services, which is reaching the point of crisis.
On Wednesday, The Nokiiwin Tribal Council hosted the Robinson Superior Access to Justice Forum, 2017. The forum, which is in its second year, is meant to provide first hand information on a variety of topics relating to legal rights, including restorative justice, treaty rights, and hunting and fishing rights.
“Our communities find that they are very much absent from the justice system,” said Audrey Gilbeau, executive director with Nokiiwin Tribal Council. “There is no provision of services. We’ve just recently been able to, with funding from legal aid Ontario, to offer summary legal clinics in our communities.”
According to Gilbeau, people living in remote communities face a number of obstacles when it comes to accessing legal services. In some cases, even seeing a lawyer can be a two to four hour drive away.
“It’s a real strain,” she said. “It’s a definitely disadvantage. Having the legal advisor go right to the community has been beneficial.”
Yvette Metansinine, a councillor with Animibiigoo Zaagi igan in Beardmore, said members of communities often do not know what services are available to them in the legal system.
“We need to inform our people that there are services out there when they do get into the justice system,” she said. “I feel that a lot of our community members, when they get into the justice system, they don’t know what to do. Some of the behavior that is happening within the aboriginal communities, I think hosting a justice forum like this can really benefit the communities and our people.”
Metansinine said she has received a lot of feedback from members who say they want to know what their rights are, and she believes better access to services would help guide them when entering the legal system.
“There’s a need of court workers within our communities,” she said. “I think that will help the gap between the community and the justice system, to help our people.”
“I feel angry when some of our people are mistreated and they don’t have anywhere to go,” Metansinine continued. “If I could be there for every person at every incident, I would be, because I feel for our people.”
The justice forum is a way to get the conversation started about what services are needed in Robinson Superior Treaty communities, according to Gilbeau.
“It’s not necessarily to build a legal department in Nokiiwin, but I think at some point, the leadership will have to look at that in terms of how to take that to the next level,” she said
Gilbeau added that Nokiiwin is working on a justice assessment and the feedback collected during the justice forum will go back into the bigger picture and allow them to focus on the most important issues.
“I hope our people that are in attendance will take away the information and go back to their communities and try to implement and provide those services for our people and guide them,” Mentansinine added. “If we need workers, then a liaison within the community and justice system, then I think they would really benefit from that.”
Northern Superior Regional Grand Chief, Pierre Pelletier, said the justice forum is a first step in providing people with a better understanding of the justice system, particularly youth, to help create change.
“It would be nice to see if the children and the youth and even the adults can find a way to help their life,” he said. “You’re not going to cure everybody today, but if you can even get a couple, that would be a huge success. This will set the tone for what can happen down the road with regard to the access to what you can use and what you can’t do.”
